Free Footloose by Paramount Pictures Corporation Page A

because that was the only thing that could explain why he’d even remotely consider hiring someone so clearly out of his element.
    â€œYou know how to operate pallet jacks?” Andy asked.
    â€œUh-uh.” He didn’t even know what a pallet jack was.
    â€œCan you work a stitching pedal?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Ren admitted. “Never seen one.”
    Andy paused, as if he were rethinking this whole arrangement. “Where’d you say you were from?”
    â€œBoston, Mass.”
    Andy nodded. “Did they teach you anything useful up north?”
    â€œJust enough to get by,” Ren said. “But I’m hoping y’all could teach me the three Rs.”
    â€œThe three Rs?”
    Ren threw on an accent heavier than Willard’s. “Readin’, writin’, and redneckery.”
    This time the pause was a bit longer than the last. Ren feared he had gone too far, showed a bit too much of that Yankee sarcasm. It wasn’t the best way to treat a potential boss. Andy’s face cracked into a slow, knowing smile. “People been givin’ you a hard time?”
    Ren nodded. School had been good enough thanks to Willard, but that didn’t mean anyone else was welcoming him with open arms. The whispers and stares followed him around town for the first couple days, like everyone expected him to do something wrong. It certainly didn’t help that Bomont had its own crazy quirks.
    How was Ren supposed to know that the seniors had an extremely limited reading list? He’d picked Slaughterhouse-Five as his choice for his first report in English class and the teacher went ballistic, telling him he couldn’t read that trash in the classroom. The next three books he chose were denied as well, which was ridiculous. The main reason he’d thought of them was because he’d already read them for school years ago. It was like some of the rules were there just to make strangers feel like outsiders no matter what they did.
    â€œI can see that,” Andy said. “You’re young. From out of town. You’re a smart aleck.”
    Well, that was that. Maybe he should have taken Wes seriously about his sarcasm.
    â€œCan you start Thursday?” Andy asked.
    The question caught him off guard. “Yes. Yes, sir.”
    Andy clapped his hand on Ren’s shoulder. “I’ll help you with the reading and writing. You’re on your own with the redneckery.”
    Oh, but Ren had plenty of help with that as he made his way through the town over the following week. Bomont was a different kind of place than Boston, and not just because it was smaller. The people were different. The food was different. Even the activities were different.
    Weekly attendance at church was now mandatory. It was a non-negotiable point with his uncle and aunt. It wasn’t like the hour he gave up for it was the end of the world or anything, but the reverend’s sermons were beginning to feel frozen in time, stuck in an age when people griped about anything new or different. Being the most new and different thing in town, Ren couldn’t help but take it personally, though he was aware that the preacher didn’t mean it that way.
    Ren knew he wasn’t giving the place a fair shake, but the townsfolk weren’t being all that welcoming to him, either. Aside from Willard and Woody, he hadn’t made any friends in his first couple weeks. Ariel continued to ignore him, and no other girls at school had sparked his interest the way she did. He knew she was playing games by ignoring him, but it still got to him.
    The guys came over to help with the car after church. It was moving along well enough with all the changes he’d made over the past couple weeks, but it wouldn’t hurt any to see if they could get it to run a little quieter. He’d only get in more trouble if he tried to drown out the noise with his music.
    There was something that Ren wanted